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EDITORIAL

Greater Responsibility on the Shoulders of Channel Partners

S A N J AY M O H A PAT R A GROUP EDITOR S A N J AY @ A C C E N T I N F O M E D I A . C O M

The evolving dimension of technology has also dynamically affected the job descriptions. I read a very interesting article on the internet that talked about a Cloud developer’s job description that is increasingly getting complex and the horizon of versatility has just broadened. Similar is the case for our technology providers and their channel partners. The CIOs and their role underwent a dynamic transition in 2016. The way they approached and demanded a technology was very different then it was earlier. As the whole concept of ‘Composable Infrastructure’ gains momentum, it is now the responsibility of the partners to live up to their true purpose. Partners will have to leverage their work models and build more meaningful relationships with the customers. That is the message!

Having said that, we at Global Enterprise Connect are all set to unveil the future of the Cloud and newer technologies at the ‘Future IT Summit 2017’ to be held in March. A unique opportunity for the vendors, channel partners and CIOs to meet and discuss the way the want IT to transform their business. We have some amazing line up of government leaders and CIOs presentation too and I take this opportunity to welcome you all!

We are also introducing the ‘Top 10 IT Companies to Work for in 2017’ awards that would be areflection of the top companies in the UAE that made sure that technology din’t steal away the ‘Happiness’ and ‘Employee Engagement’ factors from the workplace.

It is time to spread the happiness and look towards a common future! ë

MEA PUBLISHER: SANJIB MOHAPATRA MANAGING DIRECTOR: TUSAHR SAHOO GROUP EDITOR: SANJAY MOHAPATRA sanjay@gecmediagroup.com M: +971 555 119 432 ASSISTANT EDITOR: ANUSHREE DIXIT anushree@gecmediagroup.com REPORTER: DIVSHA BHATT divsha@gecmediagroup.com BUSINESS CONTENT DEVELOPER: AISHA NIZAMUDDIN KHAN aisha@gecmediagroup.com

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Time to Rise Above the Competition!

Those who are familiar with the ‘Global Good Project’, will agree to this fact that technology is touching our lives in more ways than one. It is very interesting to see how certain technologies penetrate the anatomy of a sector and slowly breathe in their vitality into each and every business model to be the central nervous system of that sector. Quite a biological metaphor that is!

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But indeed, taking blockchain and fintech as examples, before people went into exploring their positives and negatives we are already seeing them redefine the way BFSI sectors and their service ‘modus operandi’ looked like. The META market is becoming increasingly competitive. It is the era of ‘Customer-first’. Every technology that is brought or sold is done keeping the customer at the center of it. We saw some leading banks in the ME revamp customer experience with the launch of virtualized platforms, services and digital branches. Mobility and BYOD are also the growth defining technology that have steadily established their position in enterprises, striking a proportional ratio between accessibility productivity.

In a nutshell, digitalization is already running through the veins of the regional enterprises. The organizations that are still thinking and not reflecting will see themselves running down on the growth curve. ë

F E B R U A R Y 2017

MEA

MASAFI COMPOUND, SATWA, P.O.BOX: 5613, DUBAI, UAE

I N FO M E DIA

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2017 CONTENTS

VOLUME 04 ISSUE 07 FEBRUARY 2017 W W W. E N T E R P R I S E C H A N N E L S M E A . C O M

COVER STORY

DIGITALLY YOURS

BFSI

In one word—‘Disruption’. Disruption is the word to summarize the evolution of the banking and financial industry landscape and it would be the way ahead for 2017 as well. /24 MY VIEW /22

INTELLIGENT CLOUD FOR AN UNPREDICTABLE FUTURE NECIP OZYUCEL, CLOUD AND ENTERPRISE BUSINESS SOLUTIONS LEAD, MICROSOFT GULF MY VIEW /28

ALL EYES ON ‘GROWTH’ NATHAN CLEMENTS, MANAGING DIRECTOR, EXCLUSIVE NETWORKS

MY VIEWS /31

SHAPING THE FUTURE OF TRAVEL GRAHAM NICHOLS, MANAGING DIRECTOR AT AMADEUS GULF

INNOVATIONS /49

SPECIAL STORY Let There Be No Bondages! /42

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EDITORIAL :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: 04 CHANNEL STREET :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: 06 COVER FEATURE “ARUBA”:::::::::::::::::::::: 32 INNOVATIONS :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: 49

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F E B R U A R Y 2017

MEA

05

CHANNEL

STREET MICROSOFT UNVEILS FUTURE ‘DYNAMICS’ OF BUSINESS APPLICATIONS

Microsoft Gulf hosted a First Look event to introduce UAE businesses to the raw power of Microsoft Dynamics 365, at the Waldorf Astoria, The Palm Jumeirah, Dubai Dynamics 365 gives organisations, regardless of scale, access to the most advanced artificial intelligence (AI) tools ever seen in a business application. It hosts a complete set of ERP tools that boost business productivity for enterprises, equipping departments such as operations, sales, customer service and finance with global scalability and digital intelligence to boost growth. The applications provide greater visibility across systems and allow operations to become more connected, and deliver strategic, data-driven insights that enable organisations to transform their business models.

CISCO ACCELERATES CUSTOMERS’ CLOUD JOURNEY AND DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION According to Cisco’s global study, while cloud adoption continues to accelerate, few organizations are maximizing the value cloud can offer. Nearly 68 percent of organizations are using cloud to help drive business outcomes, a 61 percent increase from last year’s study. The increased cloud adoption is being fueled by cloud-native applications, including security and the Internet of Things (IoT) cloud-based solutions. On average, the most “cloud advanced” organizations see an annual benefit per cloud-based application of $3 million in additional revenues and $1 million in cost savings.

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F E B R U A R Y 2017

MEA

SDO & IBM Enhance Dubai’s Cognitive Roadmap IBM and Smart Dubai Office have geared up for an initiative for the establishment of a Cognitive Center of Competence in Dubai. The center will define and deliver Dubai’s Cognitive Roadmap and help accelerate the development of cognitive citizen services across Dubai. The collaboration also aims to equip the next generation of professionals with sought-after skills around analytics, cloud, mobility, cognitive and blockchain technology. This will support a strong human capital innovation ecosystem as part of the Smart Dubai initiative and the government’s 2020 Dubai Blockchain Strategy.

“Our collaboration with IBM underlines our commitment to foster the IT skills needed leveraging cloud, blockchain technology, analytics, mobility technologies and offer cognitive capabilities for our services which will add value to the day to

day lives of Dubai citizens and residents, making everyday experiences more safe, seamless, efficient and impactful for all,” said H.E Dr. Aisha Bin Bishr, Director General, Smart Dubai Office. The Smart Dubai Office and IBM will also provide university student developers with a full year Bluemix subscription, enabling them to gain hands on experience with cloud services. IBM Bluemix is a cloud based platform that enables organizations and developers to quickly and easily create, deploy, and manage applications on the cloud.

“Our focus with Smart Dubai Office will help accelerate the development of the IT skills and services in the Emirate and enable government entities in Dubai to begin their cognitive journey,” says Amr Refaat, General Manager, IBM Middle East and Pakistan.

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CHANNEL STREET

Veeam Nails 2016 with Record Results

PETER MCKAY, VEEAM’S PRESIDENT AND COO.

Veeam has achieved record results for Q4 2016 and FY 2016: 28 percent YoY growth (the equivalent figure for the Middle East is 18%) and $607.4M in total revenue bookings, fueled by accelerated enterprise and cloud revenues which were driven by the critical need for enterprises of all sizes to ensure they are available 24.7.365 in the Hybrid Cloud world.“2016 was a fantastic year for Veeam across the board, driven by users’ insatiable appetite for anytime, anywhere access to data, applications and workloads,” said Peter McKay, Veeam’s President and COO. “

SCHNEIDER ELECTRIC & HPE ADDRESS NEW DEMANDS OF DISTRIBUTED IT Schneider Electric has collaborated with Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) on HPE Micro Datacenter, introduced recently at the Gartner Data Center, Infrastructure & Operations Management Conference. The jointly engineered converged infrastructure solution provides end-to-end IT infrastructure, networking, storage and management in a single, self-contained and easy-to-deploy architecture ideal for distributed IT environments. The software-defined HPE Micro Datacenter utilizes cloud-enabled HPE ConvergedSystems and HyperConverged, as well as IoT HPE Edgeline Solutions.

BULWARK AND KERIO EMPOWER THE IT RESELLERS ECOSYSTEM Kerio and Bulwark Distribution recently held the second session of Kerio Partner Forum event for IT resellers in the Middle East and GCC regions.

Industry experts discussed current IT trends, addressed the advantages of cloud and on-premises solutions for small and growing businesses, and delivered best practices for selling messaging, collaboration, voice and network security solutions.

Jose Thomas Menacherry, CEO, Bulwark Distribution said: “Communication and network security solutions solve important business challenges, and can bring efficiencies and productivity to the work place. By bringing together the partners, the event created better opportunities for networking, partner enablement and provided insight into the Kerio product portfolio to aid business communication and network security.”

Richard Gooding, VP Marketing of Kerio Technologies added: “We equip Cloud service providers and IT resellers with award-winning communication and network security solutions, knowledge and resources, so that they can support small and growing businesses. The Dubai Partner Forum was a great opportunity for Kerio and our distributor Bulwark to meet channel partners in the ME and GCC regions and discuss how to succeed in the messaging, security, voice & collaboration markets in 2017.”

OMA EMIRATES EXPANDS PAYMENT SOLUTION PORTFOLIO WITH NEW INVESTMENTS OMA Emirates has invested in India based MobiSwipe, a company that specializes in Mobile Point of Sale (mPOS) solutions. The new acquisition will help in broadening the services and solutions that OMA Emirates will now offer in

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the Middle East, Eastern Europe and the APAC regions.

The solution enables merchants to accept both credit and debit card payments via a simple mobile application and provides an innovative, convenient and economi-

F E B R U A R Y 2017

MEA

cal payment option to a wide range of business sectors. “The new investment in MobiSwipe provides us a stronger platform to broaden our set of business solutions and services. ” said Niranj Sangal, Group CEO, OMA Emirates Group.

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“Dubai Smart preneur Competition supports local entrepreneurs to actively contribute to and lead our citywide transformation”

6

HER EXCELLENCY DR. AISHA BIN BISHR, DIRECTOR GENERAL, SMART DUBAI OFFICE.

SECONDS

R&MINTELIPHY’S INTEGRATION WITH NETSCALE REDEFINES AIM R&M introduced its new R&MinteliPhy system

Kotak Securities Go BI Live with Finesse

for Netscale. This next generation of automated infrastructure management (AIM) for the world’s highest density fiber solutions now runs in continuous self-testing mode to automate system health checks. Netscale combined with R&MinteliPhy ensures up-to-date key information is always available, supporting infrastructure managers’ decision-making and helping avoid risks.

EMERSON NETWORK POWER IS ‘VERTIV’ The business now formerly known as Emerson Network Power has appointed Rob Johnson as CEO and officially commenced a campaign to rebrand the standalone company as Vertiv and aims to focus on speed, technology innovation and growth, with added flexibility to serve expanding markets for cloud computing, mobile networking. Platinum Equity acquired the

KAMLESH RAO, CEO, KOTAK SECUITIES

SUNIL PAUL, COO AND CO-FOUNDER, FINESSE

business from Emerson in a transaction valued in excess of $4 billion. Emerson also retained a minority interest in the company.

DARKMATTER PENETRATES MOBILE

Kotak Securities, the stock broking and distribution arm of the Kotak Mahindra Group, has gone live with its Business Intelligence & MIS Analytics Platform using Qlik Business Intelligence Software. Finesse was chosen to implement Qlik Sense at Kotak Securities to drill down the collated data across all systems to get analytics that helped them in interpretation, analytics and decision making. This has helped Kotak Securities get better visualization of data and to have deeper insights to take more

informed decisions. Kamlesh Rao, CEO, Kotak Secuities, said, “Data, on the fly, in real time, is extremely important for being in the business of broking today which is where analytics and therefore QlikSense comes into the picture for us.”

Sunil Paul – COO and Co-Founder, Finesse, said “The Business Intelligence & Analytics solution implemented by Finesse has been designed to streamline Kotak Securities’ business operations as well as to enhance information sharing and administration.”

ECOSYSTEM WITH GSMA MEMBERSHIP DarkMatter has become an Associate Member in the GSMA, the global organisation that represents the interests of the mobile telecom industry. DarkMatter’s membership will permit the firm to become active in GSMA working groups such as Fraud and Security, Web and SIM. These three groups address issues such as safeguarding SIM cards, encryption on the internet, the introduction of HTTP2, mobile malware, cloud service risks and controls, and SS7 security.

TRANSSYS WINS ‘ORACLE CX CLOUD PARTNER OF THE YEAR’

CITRIX UNVEILS SIGNIFICANT BUSI-

TransSys Solutions won the ‘Oracle CX Cloud Partner of the Year’ award for 2016 at the recently held Oracle Partner Day Event in Dubai. TransSys was recognized for its commitment to delivering a variety of innovative client cloud transformations solutions using Oracle’s CX (Customer eXperience) Cloud in the GCC region. “Cloud and digital transformation are at the center of any business’ corporate strategy to jump start from where they are today. TransSys has been helping customers embark on their digital transformation journey using Oracle’s cloud solutions. We are delighted to win the ‘Oracle CX Cloud Partner of the Year – 2016’ award, which is an achievement and an honor. This award is a testament to our team’s dedication towards excellence and in providing solutions that drive real business value and results for our customers,” said Prabu Balasubramanyan, Executive Director, TransSys Solutions.

At the Citrix Summit 2017, Citrix stated its

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F E B R U A R Y 2017

MEA

NESS UPDATES AT CITRIX SUMMIT 2017 acquisition of UniDesk, Also highlighted were solutions, tools and support services designed to enable customer progression to the cloud at various stages of the migration process. This comes as demand for an architecture that allows customers to manage workloads on their current infrastructure, while having the ability to migrate to one or more clouds grows considerably.

CHANNEL STREET

Fortinet Bolsters IOT with Security Fabric

PHIL QUADE, CHIEF INFORMATION SECURITY OFFICER AT FORTINET

Fortinet has extended the Fortinet Security Fabric to defend enterprises against the exponentially increasing cyber threats posed by the Internet of Things (IoT). Fortinet’s Security Fabric delivers the visibility, integration, control and infrastructure scale required to successfully defend the complex attack surfaces created by the ongoing proliferation of IoT devices.

Phil Quade, chief information security officer at Fortinet said, “The Fortinet Security Fabric arms enterprises with proven security capabilities today, while providing a foundation for the visibility and automation required to maintain an effective IoT cybersecurity posture in the future.”

To successfully defend the massive scope of IoT

and the cloud, organizations need to implement a Security Fabric that scales the entire infrastructure for comprehensive visibility, segmentation, and end-to-end protection. Enterprises need to consider three strategic network security capabilities to harden their infrastructure against IoT threats.

Fortinet has laid the foundation for its continued innovation with its Security Fabric vision to deliver Intent-Based Network Security.

With Intent-Based Network Security, enterprises can automate the execution of their IoT strategy and operations by translating business needs into synchronized network security actions without human intervention

SYMANTEC & NORTON SECURITY SOLUTIONS WIN AV-TEST AWARD AV-TESTevaluates the efficacy of endpoint security solutions against advanced attacks throughout the year. Security solutions are subjected to more than 1,000 live zero-day attacks delivered via infected websites and e-mail to measure a product’s complete protection ability. In addition, AV-TEST measures the security solution’s detection of more than 100,000 current and widespread threats.

Symantec is the first company to win this prestigious award in both the Business and Consumer categories two years in a row.

“For the second consecutive year, Symantec has achieved the highest protection scores simultaneously in both the business and consumer protection categories -a feat no other company has accomplished,” said Andreas Marx, CEO, AV-TEST. “Symantec Endpoint Protection and Norton Security demonstrated impressive security protection in the 2016 testing series, particularly in comparison to competing solutions. Our rigorous testing resulted in Symantec coming out on top with the most secure solutions for both organizations and consumers.”“As the pace and sophistication of cybercriminals advance, its Symantec’s number one priority to continually innovate our solutions,” said Adam Bromwich, vice president, Symantec Security Technology and Response, Symantec. “Combined with the artificial intelligence capabilities of our big data telemetry network, our solutions make it nearly impossible for attackers to penetrate the endpoints we protect, helping to ensure our consumer and business customers stay safe.”

INGRAM MICRO TO DISTRIBUTE HPE’S SECURITY SOFTWARE SOLUTIONS Ingram Micro has signed a distribution agreement with Hewlett Packard Enterprise for the whole range of its Security Software product line and solutions.

“HPE is committed to helping our customers understand the need to protect their business by building security into the fabric of their enterprise,” said Tim

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Grieveson, chief cyber & security strategist for HPE EMEA. “We are convinced that through our partnership with Ingram Micro we will be able to reach and help more customers mitigate risk in their hybrid environments and defend against advanced threats.” ”We are delighted to be adding HPE Software solutions

F E B R U A R Y 2017

MEA

in the portfolio we offer to our partners,” said Ali Baghdadi, senior vice president and chief executive of Ingram Micro’s META region. “HPE Software will help our partners and customers to significantly enhance the protection and management of their enterprise.” “Our target is to enhance the value proposition

to our business partners with a dedicated range of services and relevant large vendors,” said Marc Kassis, cyber security director, Ingram Micro META region.

“With HPE, we are reaching the front-runner position as a value-added distributor of Cyber Security solutions.”

CATALYSTS

AWARDS 2017

RECOGNIZING EXCELLENCE

14 MARCH, 2017

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Is Your Organization ‘email’ Available? Asks Mimecast

WEB CLIPS CYBER CRIMINALS NAME AND SHAME 1000 ‘RIPPERS’

Mimecast has enhanced its Mailbox Continuity offering, designed to strengthen customers’ cyber resilience by automatically detecting a Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft Office 365, or G Suite by Google Cloud email outage or disruption and enabling rapid mitigation.

New Management features will reduce the time it takes for administrators to identify and respond to email disruptions by monitoring availability in real-time.

A service set up to protect cyber criminals from being ‘ripped off’ by their fellow criminal cohort has recently identified the 1,000th culprit that has failed to come up with the goods. Ripper.cc was formed in June 2016 and is the only known service to keep a database of known ‘rippers’ – those who rob others on the dark web and other criminal marketplaces. Digital Shadows has been tracking the service since its inception..

DAVID HOOD, CYBER RESILIENCE EXPERT AT MIMECAST

HONEYWELL HIGHLIGHTED CONNECTED HEALTHCARE SOLUTIONS AT ARAB HEALTH 2017 By merging physical and digital technology,

DPG RECEIVES ISO CERTIFICATION FOR BUSINESS CONTINUITY

Honeywell demonstrated how connected

Dubai Properties Group (DPG) has been awarded for its provision of real estate development, leasing, sales, property management, and facility management, with the prestigious ISO 22301:2012 certification. Abdulla M. Lahej, Group CEO of Dubai Properties said: “We are delighted to receive a certification that underlines our commitment to building a strong Business Continuity Management System which we have highlighted through the implementation of the practices set in place designed to meet the highest of standards in operations.”

DPG underwent a stringent process to verify and determine the conformity of its Business Continuity Management System (BCMS), through a complete evaluation which ensures that it is capable of achieving specified objects and meets contractual requirements.

clinicians and patients in innovative ways to

solutions can integrate hospital infrastructure by connecting management systems, deliver better care. Honeywell’s “Connected Hospital”, “Connected Patient” and “Connected Clinician” initiatives streamline healthcare operations to improve the health of patients .

NEC ENHANCES DIGITAL SIGNAGE WITH NEW P & V SERIES The new displays support the NEC Open Modular intelligence (OMi) platform, enabling the creation of tailor-made solutions for

MOVEMENTS MARIO M. VELJOVIC is General Manager at VAD

Digital Shadows has appointed DANIEL MOSKOWITZ as Chief Financial Officer

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NUMBER GAME

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signage. Scalable computing power such as Raspberry Pi compute modules or Open Pluggable Specification (OPS) Slot-in PCs can be seamlessly embedded into the displays to create a fully integrated solution.

CIENA DRIVES BI INTO CUSTOMER NETWORK TRANSFORMATION EFFORTS Ciena’s new addition to the Blue Planet portfolio, Blue Planet Analytics generates deep network insights through big data to help network operators make smarter,

ELI KALIL joins as Mimecast’s SVP for Global Channel Sales

Billion

data-driven business decisions. As part of the

ity and related applications gives operators

Polycom has appointed BILLIE HARTLESS as Chief Human Resources Officer

MEA IoT Spending to Reach $7.8 Billion in 2017, says IDC

F E B R U A R Y 2017

MEA

overall strategy to enable fully autonomous networking via Blue Planet, the new capabilthe ability to visualize and identify trends in order to create more profitable services, better predict capacity requirements, and anticipate potential network and service disruptions before they take place.

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CHANNEL STREET

HID Global’s Top Trends for 2017 Identity Technology Industry

STEFAN WIDING, PRESIDENT AND CEO OF HID GLOBAL

HID Global forecasts a shift in the use of identity technology that will lead to increased adoption of mobile devices and the latest smart card technology, a greater emphasis and reliance on the cloud, and a radical new way of thinking of trust in smart environments and Internet of Things (IoT).

Stefan Widing, President and CEO of HID Global, said “2017 will mark an important phase in the industry, as organizations seek to use the broadest range of smart devices ever.”

Stronger adoption of mobile devices and

advanced smart cards underscores the need for trusted identities; Greater emphasis on the cloud through “hybrid” solutions that combine on-premises and the cloud to create common management platforms for digital IDs; Emerging IoT uses cases to connect, more people, places and things, increasing the need to ensure the Internet of Trusted Things (IoTT); Embedding trusted identities more deeply in everyday activities for businesses and consumers

QIIB INNOVATES CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE WITH MISYS FUSIONBANKING QIIB has chosen Misys FusionBanking Essence Islamic to accelerate modern Sharia-compliant banking and build client loyalty through an enriched customer experience.

“The Islamic finance sector is highly challenging as a result of multiple players and strict regulations. In order for us to differentiate ourselves and grow, we must put the clients’ needs front and centre, providing them with superior customer service,” said Nasser Hasan Mahmoud, Head of IT at QIIB.

WIRESTORM STREAMLINES DEVOPS IN THE CLOUD WITH NETAPP Wirestorm builds and implements business intelligence, enterprise mobility applications, cloud computing, and technical staffing solutions for Fortune 500 companies. To accelerate and automate its DevOps process, Wirestorm turned to NetApp and deployed NetApp ONTAP Cloud. In doing so, Wirestorm found a Data Fabric solution that delivered everything that the company needed for DevOps in the cloud—without a single physical array—enabling Wirestorm to use only laptops.

By leveraging NetApp FlexClone technology within ONTAP, Wirestorm significantly reduced the time that was required to deliver solutions to clients.

As a result, they can save on storage costs, increase efficiency, and reclaim the hours that it takes to build physical copies of datasets. This powerful framework has enabled Wirestorm to automate so efficiently that it can implement an endto-end solution all the way to Amazon Web Services (AWS) in less than a minute.

“NetApp ONTAP Cloud drastically lowered our cloud cost and server spend.

My team was able to reduce the number of deployment systems by 10 times and drop our total deployment time from 20 hours to under a minute,” said Jeremy Goodrum, VP of Engineering at Wirestorm. ” In addition, NetApp OnCommand Unified Manager and OnCommand Workflow Automation simplify the viewing and automation of storage tasks and data protection.

IT’S A BON ‘DIGITAL’ VOYAGE FOR MAERSK WITH RIVERBED Maersk Line, part of the Maersk Group and the world’s largest container shipping operator, is using Riverbed SteelCentral to monitor business-critical applications and services and provide the ability to troubleshoot performance bottlenecks across the company.

The five-year contract with

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Riverbed will support Maersk Line’s strategy to become the digital leader within the shipping sector.

“The digitalization at Maersk Line has been significant,” said Andy Laurence, Head of Production Services at Maersk Group Infrastructure Services, a unit

F E B R U A R Y 2017

MEA

responsible for the Maersk Line IT infrastructure.

“Five years ago, 20% of our revenue was digital, and today it’s over 90%. As we continue on our digital journey, having a scalable and stable digital platform infrastructure and end-to-end visibility across our digital services

and into the cloud is critical.”

“Riverbed SteelCentral gives us a circle of development that helps us to be responsive, pushes us to be proactive, positions us to be predictive, which then allows us to be pre-emptive,” concludes Laurence.

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Our FARGO® line of printers and encoders provide governments, financial institutions and businesses of all sizes fast, efficient and reliable solutions that financial institutions are as secure as theyand arebusinesses affordable. of all sizes fast, efficient and reliable solutions that are as secure as they are affordable.

You’ll call it innovation on demand. We call it, “your security connected.”

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© 2016 HID Global Corporation/ASSA ABLOY AB. All rights reserved. HID, HID Global, the HID Blue Brick logo, and the Chain Design are trademarks or registered trademarks of HID Global or its licensor(s)/supplier(s) in the US and other countries and may not be used without permission. © 2016 HID Global Corporation/ASSA ABLOY AB. All rights reserved. HID, HID Global, the HID Blue Brick logo, and the Chain Design are trademarks or registered trademarks of HID Global or its licensor(s)/supplier(s) in the US and other countries and may not be used without permission.

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5/4/16 11:50 AM

5/4/16 11:50 AM

CHANNEL STREET

Mobile Working in Healthcare Sector Improves Productivity, says Aruba The use of mobile technology in and out of the workplace is making a positive impact on the productivity and job satisfaction of healthcare employees, according to research conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) and sponsored by Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company.The findings suggest that nearly six in ten (59%) of workers report being more productive in their jobs as a result of mobile technology, while nearly half (48%) are more satisfied in their job if they perceived their employer to be a good provider of mobile

working practices.

While the use of mobile technology for employees has gained popularity in recent years, some hospitals still restrict the use of mobile phones within their premises for fear of interference with medical equipment. However the report suggests we may be arriving at a point where employee demands for mobility can no longer be ignored: almost a third (29%) of healthcare workers now state they would not work for a company that would not allow them to use their mobile devices for work.

SECURITY SURPASSES AVAILABILITY AS PRIORITY’ SAYS F5 F5 Networks revealed the EMEA results of its 2017 State of Application Delivery report. The only global report of its kind is now in its third year, surveying over 2,000 IT, networking, application, and security professionals worldwide to examine the role application services play in allowing enterprises to deploy apps faster, smarter and more securely.

The highest area of investment for 2017 in EMEA was the use of on-premise private clouds (46 per cent).The most important security feature was that the cloud should provide the same level of security and auditability as other similar on premises services (61 per cent).

This hints that organisations are concerned about the disruption moving to the cloud can have on operations.

“Businesses are putting their money where their strategy is when it comes to cloud,” said Ryan Kearny, CTO, F5 Networks.

“There are still challenges to overcome but the global shift to embrace hybrid scenario clearly shows a growing recognition that agility and speed can be achieved without compromising security, provided there are consistent policies and solutions in place.”

DUBAI COURTS EMPOWERS SMART TRANSFORMATION WITH ‘RASED’ Dubai Courts has launched ‘Rased,’ a judicial work indicator, as a major leap in its smart transformation efforts and a boost to its ongoing initiatives to achieve leadership in the judiciary sector. The smart technical system provides a unified tool to enhance corporate governance, effectively attain strategic goals, and promote high excellence in its main operations. The move is in line with the Courts’ commitment to strengthen public confidence in both domestic and international judicial system by bolstering the local judiciary’s performance and efficiency based on justice, independence, transparency, accessible legal services, and fair and reliable implementation of laws and government regulations in line with Dubai Plan 2021.

H.E. Taresh Eid Al Mansouri, Director General of Dubai Courts said, “We are confident that the new smart system will accelerate our efforts of meeting the targets of the ‘Strategic Document 2016-2019.’

This includes achieving effective, accurate and direct justice as well as the provision of accessible judicial services for all in a bid to establish pioneering and internationally distinguished courts that support the efforts of building a safe community and fair judiciary in the UAE.” ‘Rased’ system allows Dubai Courts’ customers to access key results through the electronic undertaking screens. It also provides critical data base and detailed reports of all judicial and administrative processes and services, their indicators, the results of quality and excellent practices, and support operations and their results up to 2012.

VMWARE FUELS CLOUD ADOPTION WITH NEW LEADERSHIPS VMware has enhanced its leadership portfolio with some new appointments in the MENA region.

Mohammed Darras has been appointed as country manager VMware UAE, Ahmed El Saadi has been named country manager, VMware North Africa, Levant, and Egypt, and promoted Ossama

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Eldeeb to senior manager, MENA Partner Organisation, VMware.

This announcement comes at a time when customer demand for public cloud infrastructure, applications, and services, is expected to double in the region with market research firm Gartner, predicting a rise from USD 743 million in 2015

F E B R U A R Y 2017

MEA

to USD 1.73 billion in 2020.

“Data management and the cloud will fuel competition of the Middle East and North Africa’s digital economy. As MENA-based organisations accelerate their digital transformation in 2017, VMware’s new appointments will help enable our customers and partners with

strategies and solutions to drive competitiveness” said Ahmed Auda, managing director, Middle East and North Africa, VMware.

Mohammed Darras brings more than 19 years’ sales experience in the region, most recently serving as regional sales manager for Cisco UAE

CHANNEL STREET

Dubai Civil Defence Transforms Communications with Avaya

MAJOR GENERAL AND EXPERT RASHID THANI AL MATROOSHI, DIRECTOR GENERAL OF THE DUBAI CIVIL DEFENCE.

The Directorate General of Civil Defence, Dubai, has signed an agreement with Avaya to transform its communications capabilities and increase user satisfaction with the department’s Smart Communication solutions for customer service.

The solution will be developed to its full potential with Avaya Equinox to ensure that happiness of end-users is delivered, of citizens and residents

that contact the department, and of employees and teams that need to collaborate to deliver on tasks and projects. “With Avaya and Connect IT, we look forward to achieving our ‘Smart Vision’ goals, and proudly being a key component of a world-renowned Smart City – Dubai,” said Major General and expert Rashid Thani Al Matrooshi, Director General of the Dubai Civil Defence.

CULLIGAN MIDDLE EAST SELECTS IFS APPLICATIONS TO MODERNIZE AND SUPPORT COMPANY GROWTH Culligan Middle East is a water treatment specialist with manufacturing, equipment sales, and field service divisions. The company will be implementing IFS Applications for service management to optimize mission-critical business processes such as service delivery, finance, HR, and supply chain. With facilities in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, Qatar, and Bahrain, IFS Applications will provide a single platform giving visibility to company executives and managers while standardizing and integrating processes across the company in order to modernize operations.

DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY, ONLINE SHOPPING RE-SHAPING UAE RETAIL Consumer sentiment and spending levels continue to rise despite the effect of falling oil prices on the regional economy, according to a recent survey conducted by Virtual Info Systems (VIS), organisers of the first Smart Stores Expo (SSE) happening at ADNEC, Abu Dhabi from 23rd-25th January 2017.

The survey conducted over a period of six months is a step towards better understanding of the shopping habits, and factors driving the purchase decisions of UAE consumers and its implications on retailers.

The survey finds that 76.4% still prefer in-store shopping, whereas only 23.6% prefer to shop online, indicating that brick-and-mortar will continue to be retail mainstay despite the surge in e-commerce platforms and other technology offerings.

The survey also revealed that 43.6% make online buys at least once a month with 38.2% participants spending an average of 6-8 hours per day online.

While 50% respondents to this survey agreed that their online purchase decisions are heavily influenced by deals and discounts.

Furthermore, the study suggested that a growing number of brickand-mortar stores are beginning to incorporate new retail technologies to improve in-store experiences with 21.4% customers using cashless payment apps, 20.4% using barcode readers while shopping in stores.

SOPHOS RETAINS LEADERSHIP IN GARTNER MAGIC QUADRANT FOR ENDPOINT PROTECTION Gartner has once again positioned Sophos as a Leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Endpoint Protection Platforms (EPP). With the recently launched next-generation anti-exploit product Sophos Intercept X and the continued enhancement of the cloud-based management platform Sophos

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Central, Sophos offers a broad portfolio of endpoint security products that are proven to be effective against today’s sophisticated threats. Sophos has held a Leader position in this report since 2007.Dan Schiappa, svp and gm of the endpoint and network security groups at Sophos. “We believe

F E B R U A R Y 2017

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that our continued placement as a Leader in this highly competitive market reflects our ability to continually innovate and deliver quality products in response to the changing threat landscape. Not only have our products been proven in customer deployments worldwide but they are also assessed by

independent third party testing to demonstrate their effectiveness against the threats that Gartner cautions are on the rise.” The launch of Intercept X added signatureless anti-exploit and anti-ransomware capabilities with root cause analysis to complement existing endpoint protection products

A Miller Heiman Group Distribution Partner

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MY VIEWS

Intelligent Cloud for an Unpredictable Future An era of ‘Cloud’ has dawned that demands less of sophistication and more of simplicity.

Understand the Cloud and the Cloud is yours!

Microsoft has set sail on a similar journey to enable, empower and harness the true value of the Cloud and walk hand in hand with the CIOs to help them in their transformative journey.

NECIP OZYUCEL,

CLOUD AND ENTERPRISE BUSINESS SOLUTIONS LEAD, MICROSOFT GULF

n B Y: A N U S H R E E D I X I T < A N U S H R E E @ G E C M E D I A G R O U P. C O M >

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redicting the future of the Cloud would be something that even Nostradamus would think twice.

Sitting across a table at the busy Microsoft office, discussing the onset of an ‘Intelligent Cloud’, Necip Ozyucel, Cloud and Enterprise Business Solutions Lead, Microsoft Gulf says, “How the Cloud would look like in 2020 is a very hypothetical question. 3 years of human calendar is 30 years in the Cloud calendar. We are working towards an unpredictable future that would be governed by billions of connected machines and advanced scenarios like Artificial Intelligence, machine learning and IoT. Microsoft has been preparing for the future by building an Intelligent Cloud— The Microsoft Azure.”

Necip says that the term ‘Intelligent Cloud’ is not a mere marketing gimmick that they have adopted. “Today the customers have a lot of alternatives and they will not take time to switch between them. Hence, it is our responsibility to give them a Cloud that not only best fits their business models but also comprehends their architecture and responds wisely.”

Adoption and Trust go hand in hand; Trust and Knowledge go hand in hand. Necip believes that, in order to convince the customers to migrate to the cloud, the customer has to be educated first about the benefits that the cloud will offer him/her. Until and unless he has the knowledge, he would never invest his faith in the Cloud. One of the most talked about challenges

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in the IT fraternity in 2016 was the widespread skill gap. In spite of the technologies being in place, there were huge challenges in implementing or deploying those technologies because of the rampant skill gap within the IT department.

To fuel the digital transformation of the CIOs and help them in making the most out of Microsoft Azure, Microsoft recently launched the Azure Skills - Cloud related trainings and certification offers for IT Professionals across UAE. With the aim of increasing adoption for new Cloud technologies, the Azure Skills program will help participants advance their technical acumen on Cloud; driving true digital transformation in line with UAE Vision 2021, and contributing to the country’s innovation, economic competitiveness, and smart initiatives. IT professionals signing up for the courses will have access to a broad range of technical resources and trainings at different levels. Necip says that the year 2016 was the year of ‘Finding Value’ as it saw the CIOs being selective and careful of the solutions that they are picking or the vendors that they are working with. At the end of the day it all boiled down to one word—Value. “We at Microsoft have always stood the test of time in giving our customers utmost value for the solution that they invest their faith in.”

Talking about Microsoft Azure specifically, Necip says that it is one such platform that has no versions. “It is like Office 365 or Mobility Suite.

There are no versions of the Azure. But on a daily basis there are enhancements and improvements

made to it, making in agile and flexible that can fit into the required organizational models.

To make sure that the customer is aware of the benefits that he can derive from Azure, we have introduced this special training and certification program. At Microsoft we have a huge base of partners who are well experienced and possess the expertise to decentralize the benefits of Azure to the customers.”

Necip says that Cloud readiness is deeply associated with knowledge and skill sets. As soon as the customers understand that the opportunities offered by the Cloud are endless, they will migrate without thinking twice. “We invest a lot in our R&D. We also support our customers by giving them utmost privacy and security in the cloud. We have proven certifications as well in this domain. Customers can start with us with an initial workload and experience the service.

When and if they are convinced they can migrate their entire workload, thus giving them the much needed reliability and flexibility.

‘Building Intelligent Cloud’ is not just a marketing term for us. We believe in it. Azure is an intelligent cloud and we are making it more intelligent for the customers by adding additional intelligence factors in the back-end. In the front-end we are adding more cognitive services like face and speech recognition, emotion comprehension and AIs to make it more and more beneficial for the customers.”

“The Future of the Cloud is very important to us” Necip says with a smile as he signs off. ë

INTERCEPT A completely new approach to endpoint security.

Sophos Intercept X is a next-generation endpoint detection and response

Sophos Intercept X is a next-generation endpoint detectionand platform designed to stop ransomware, zero-day exploits, provide detailed intelligence. response platformand designed to stopthreat ransomware, zero-day exploits,

and provide detailed threat intelligence.

• Stop ransomware before it can take hostages • Block zero-day attacks with signatureless anti-exploit technology

• Stop ransomware before it can take hostages • Get easy to understand threat insight and root cause analysis • Block zero-day attacksremediation with signatureless anti-exploit • Automate and malware removal technology • Get easy to understand threat insight and root cause analysis Learn more and try for free at

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Learn more and try for free at

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05.10.2016 18:54:21

COVER STORY

OPPORTUNITIES & GROWTH IN BFSI

Digitally Yours

BFSI

In one word—‘Disruption’.

Disruption is the word to summarize the evolution of the banking and financial industry landscape and it would be the way ahead for 2017 as well. Blockchain and Fintech being two of the many niche innovations in the BFSI domain, it was very stimulating to see how the entire concept of ‘Secure payments’, ‘Seamless services’ and ‘Customer-first’ went through innumerable manifestations.

n B Y: A N U S H R E E D I X I T < A N U S H R E E @ G E C M E D I A G R O U P. C O M > n PHOTO: SHUTTERSTOCK

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here there is a demand, there is a solution. This holds true for the Middle East banking and finance sector as well. Better educated citizens, a growing young population, increased importance of time over money and value over time and a never-ending appetite for newer technology has raised the bar for the BFSI sector to invest more and more in customer centric solutions. It is estimated that the global banking industry currently spends $500 billion (Dh1.83 trillion) on technology. A staggering amount! .

MONEY GOES TECH As experts say, banking industry in the region have certainly seen their share of technology driven disruption over the last few years – be it the high penetration of mobile applications or real time analytics for understanding customer behaviour. FinTech and blockchain technologies are definitely two of the biggest disruptors that the finance sector has seen so far. Though the adoption and maturity is not very widespread but the region is definitely welcoming the change with open arms and have already some good success story to share. The recent venture between Accenture and DIFC, Dubai was a growing example of this.

Dubai International Financial Centre Launched ‘FinTech Hive at DIFC’, the region’s first FinTech Accelerator, supported by Accenture. FinTech Hive at DIFC aligns with Dubai Plan 2021, empowering entrepreneurs to innovate and meet specific market needs. The Accelerator is aimed at trans-

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F E B R U A R Y 2017

COVER STORY

A WORD TO THE CIOS

Manages Skills Shortage and Run Technology Needs

Stay Ahead Of the Hackers Advanced Technologies Have To Be a Firm Boardroom Discussion

Overcome the Legacy Infrastructures

CIOs Struggle To Defend Their Assets And Continue To Venture Into Cyber Insurance. Watch It!

Data Silos and Cyber Ransom Threats Increasing Compliance Requirements from Government and Industry Regulations, Locally and Globally

forming DIFC into a global FinTech innovation hub linking the US, European and Middle East, African and South Asian markets Putting the customers at the heart of all operations had been the key growth mantra for the sector and the industry saw a good deal of efforts in that direction.

Niranj Sangal, Group CEO of OMA Emirates Solutions Gulf says, â&#x20AC;&#x153;One of the major changes in the BFSI sector is a very conscious move towards self-service options and mechanism for customers over various platforms.

This is a direct effect of the speed of services which they

F E B R U A R Y 2017

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COVER STORY

“UAE payment sector is moving towards a stronger system where banks, merchants and service providers will work in tandem and deliver greater services and benefits to the consumers with technology being the backbone to this system.”

-MR. NIRANJ SANGAL,

“The biggest challenge CIOs and CISOs face is in the ability to meet the addressable market and the needs of customers in a way that still aligns with their own corporate-approved risk management posture.”

-SUNIL PAUL,

“For many years in the past, we have provided advanced assistance to banks in implementing proper protocols to improve customer intelligence in terms of sales and marketing.”

-MR. VIC BAGERIA,

CEO & CVO AT SÀVANT DATA SYSTEM

COO AND CO-FOUNDER OF FINESSE

GROUP CEO, OMA EMIRATES SOLUTIONS GULF

are looking for. From receiving and checking banking information and payments on mobile devices to even the insurance industry gathering momentum in this domain with self-service kiosks taking over. OMA Emirates has already implemented this technology for Qatar Insurance Company. “ Sàvant Data System (SDS) maintains its position as a primary contributing to the fulldigitalization of the BFSI. Mr. Vic Bageria, CEO & CVO at Sàvant Data System says, “For many years in the past, we have provided advanced assistance to banks in implementing proper protocols to improve customer intelligence in terms of sales and marketing. SDS will assist in targeting, segmenting and enhancing flow analysis.” Bots are considered as the next banker going to the mainstream. These are endowed with highfunctioning natural language abilities. The UAE ventured on this technology last year Emirates NBD has employed EVA – a virtual assistant that converses in English and provides enhanced customer experience. EVA is founded on artificial intelligence to initiate its chatbot abilities.

Finesse helps Banks and Financial Institutions adopt new technologies and innovations which

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F E B R U A R Y 2017

cater to the technological needs of the BSFI sector.

“Our aim is to make banking and bankingservices customer friendly and supports the need to implement Governments’ latest programmes and projects. This goes hand in hand with providing banks with enhanced decision making aids in the form of analytics and actionable insights,” says Sunil Paul, COO and Co-Founder of Finesse.

Huawei recently partnered with Infosys to launch the New Financial Cloud that is based on Huawei’s FusionCloud platform and its KunLun server that integrates with the world’s leading banking system: Infosys Finacle. “Built on a mission critical application infrastructure that is vital in the business of financial services, Huawei’s Financial Cloud is designed to protect the potential loss of millions of dollars due to failure of payment gateway systems,” says Alaa Elshimy - Managing Director & Vice President, Enterprise Business, Huawei Middle East.

BLOCKCHAIN Blockchain can be an important opportunity to speed up the metabolism of the industry with a common blockchain or blockchains, reduce errors and create a more secure industry and

DIFC Launches‘FinTech Hive at DIFC’,the Region’s First FinTech Accelerator in association with Accenture

AL-MAWARID Bank has chosen the VMware NSX network virtualization platform for its unique micro-segmentation capabilities, providing advanced security inside its data center network.

DIGITAL

DEVELOPMENTS

COVER STORY

CIO OBSERVATIONS

“Digitization in the FSI market is placing new demands on customer service delivery and changing the profitability formula for banks and financial institutions.”

-ALAA ELSHIMY,

MANAGING DIRECTOR & VICE PRESIDENT, ENTERPRISE BUSINESS, HUAWEI MIDDLE EAST

Digitization strategy is key for transformation and clearances from regulatory is key for speedy progress.

Money received today is much valuable than money received later” All innovations in BFSI is based on this concept.

-

RAMESH VERMA, HEAD OF IT, AL MASRAF BANK

radically cut costs. It can also be used strategically to create new value and penetrate new markets.

“Major pros are that blockchain allows for the storage and exchange of data, assets and currencies more efficiently and transparently. It could introduce trust and transparency to online transactions. It could also renovate an outdated global banking system and lead to far faster payments. Some also point to the potential for blockchain technology to simplify B2B payments, and resolve issues surrounding cross-border payments and other large-volume payments that are exclusive to the B2B environment,” says Sunil.

According to Niranj, Blockchain is the buzzword for 2017 where they saw very high interest levels in the previous year. “We understand there has been significant investments globally. At the price of lagging behind, more institutions are investing in blockchain. However, this technology is moving at a very high rate and most organizations do not where to begin. In 2017 will see more financial institutions experiment with blockchain and a higher likelihood of banks work closely with each other and run pilot projects.

DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

Emirates NBD launched ‘EVA™’, the region’s first intelligent voice-based and chatbot Virtual Assistant for banking in the MENA.

QIIB has chosen Misys FusionBanking Essence Islamic to accelerate modern Sharia-compliant banking and build client loyalty through an enriched customer experience.

uBank digital banking centre from ADCB represents a paradigm shift in banking with a ‘customer-first’ focus

New entrants are impacting the banking value chain and as we observe the patterns they can quintessentially be distinguished into three classifications; some are aggregators who are emerging with a layer of apps and; Some can be considered as innovators such as PayPal who are questioning the fundamentals of traditional banking services; Some entrants are eager to change the game and drastically transform the banking to emerge as disruptors.

-

GOPI KRISHNAN, CIO, AL HILAL BANK

Vic says that on the consumer view, digital banking is seen as a popular trend among millennials as compared to older population who still have hesitations and doubts on the use of digital solutions. “The Business Insider Intelligence report revealed that 38 percent of millennials who currently maintain accounts at a brick and mortar bank do not visit the bank except when they use an ATM. On the other hand, 36 percent of those make a visit to their banks only once a month,” he adds.

In the UAE, there is increasing acceptance of contactless payments and a cashless society will truly be amplified in the country when the Smart Government initiative will open up may more channels for contactless payments. “Additionally, UAE payment sector is moving towards a stronger system where banks, merchants and service providers will work in tandem and deliver greater services and benefits to the consumers with technology being the backbone to this system,” says Niranj.

FINALLY The Digital Banking Adoption in MENA 2016 survey conducted by Arabnet identifies Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Egypt experiencing the highest rates of adoption of digital banking platforms, at 60 per cent, 52 per cent and 46 per cent respectively.

In today’s world.... ‘Tech is Money’ ë

F E B R U A R Y 2017

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MY VIEWS

All Eyes on ‘Growth’ Exclusive Networks has been enjoying a firm foothold in the EMEA Security market. The addition of SentinelOne to its portfolio has been a breakthrough partnership in redefining the VAD’s position as a niche player in the end point anti-virus space. EC MEA had an exclusive rendezvous with Nathan Clements, Managing Director, Exclusive Networks, MENA on the organic growth plans that the organization is eyeing for in 2017. n B Y: A N U S H R E E D I X I T < A N U S H R E E @ G E C M E D I A G R O U P. C O M >

THE YEAR 2016

whose appetite for cloud and virtual environments have risen, Exclusive networks introduced— BigTec, a next generation Data center business unit. BigTec helps its partners harness the opportunities from new cloud architectures and virtualised datacentre functions that are progressively more web-scale and softwaredefined. The evolution to full virtualisation of complex IT functions is embodied by BigTec’s enterprise transformation framework, guiding reseller partners and their customers from physical to hybrid and virtual datacentre environments. “This year will see Exclusive Networks and BigTec continue to drive opportunities for our partners. We are launching an end user lead generation programme that will help open new doors for our partners, and we will launch new financing options for the channel to white label,” adds Nathan.

With cloud native applications taking center stage and digitalization being the new buzzword for modern enterprises in the region, there has been a significant demand for competitive security solutions that can fortify the needs of a borderless modern enterprise. For Exclusive Networks, 2016 was a ground of opportunities. “We enjoyed good growth in 2016, we met our expectations. Our vendor portfolio is hugely relevant to the market needs of today and tomorrow, therefore we can operate dynamically to challenging market conditions,” said Nathan Clements, MD, Exclusive Networks, MENA. “We don’t work with mature vendors as their growth expectations cannot match ours. All of our vendors are either new to market or in the ‘accelerated growth’ phase.

The new vendors that we work with are able to disrupt an existing market and take market share from mature vendors very quickly. Our existing vendors are still highly innovative and enjoy high double digit growth year on year,” he adds.

“SentinelOne was a great addition to our portfolio that helped us in leveraging the security solutions that we take to the market.” SentinelOne’s Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) unifies endpoint threat prevention, detection and response in a single platform driven by sophisticated machine learning and intelligent automation. With SentinelOne, organizations can detect malicious behavior across multiple vectors, rapidly eliminate threats with fully-automated, integrated response capabilities, and adapt their defenses against the most advanced cyber attacks.

BIGTEC— A FRESH WAVE OF CHANGE To satiate the demands of the modern enterprises

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THE INTRICATE ‘GO TO MARKET’ MANTRA

NATHAN CLEMENTS,

MANAGING DIRECTOR, EXCLUSIVE NETWORKS

“Our partners know their customers better than we do, we are here as a trusted advisor. Being part of a $1.6bn global group gives us unique insight in to technology trends, and allows us to be constantly relevant and ‘ahead of the curve’.

As part of being a trusted advisor we share this knowledge with our partners, and invest in their go to market strategies in order to generate incremental opportunities, and help them maintain their existing relationships with their customers,” says Nathan.

Exclusive Networks is set to raise the bar in the security market with some new partnerships, which are still under the wraps, “Yes, we plan to make some big announcements this year so watch this space!” says Nathan as he signs off. ë

GUEST ARTICLE

Four Things to Look for When Choosing a Financial Services Cloud Security Provider While it’s important to think about the business benefits of moving to the cloud, organizations have to remember that their security solutions must be just as flexible and scalable as the cloud itself. As the financial landscape and requirements change, organizations need to be able to make changes (when needed) to security solutions in place as well.

From large banks to insurance companies, financial services organizations are leveraging the cloud to stay ahead of the competition and deliver the best customer experiences that they can.

Some banks are moving entire systems and platforms to the cloud, while others are just moving pieces and keeping the rest on internal infrastructure. Either way, these organizations need to make security a priority, which oftentimes leads to the adoption of a cloud security provider.

But, with today’s dynamic virtual environments, what should the financial services sector look for when selecting a vendor?

DATA SECURITY Because data is the lifeblood of financial services- large and small, security and regulatory compliance — combined with the threat of reputation damage, financial impact and loss of business—make data security priority one. In fact, according to the Cloud Security Alliance (CSA), data protection is the chief concern among financial institutions that are shifting work to the cloud.

This concern typically arises as soon as financial information transfers outside the organization’s walls, and they feel as if they’ve lost control. So, before all else, financial institutions

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should start their cloud security selection process by evaluating the security measures that providers have in place, and make sure they meet or exceed requirements. Independent certifications like those provided by NSS Labs and ICSA can be helpful in this process.

SCALABILITY A reliable cloud security provider will offer endto-end security for both virtualized and physical environments.

VISIBILITY AND CONTROL Cloud security providers in the financial services industry should offer users the ability to review network activity (including security threats) as needed and from a single location, in an effort to keep security breaches at bay and overall costs down. Visibility and control in the form of reporting capabilities lets organizations be proactive, rather than reactive. These reports should come in custom and preconfigured variations, and the ability to receive them on-demand is a must.

OPENNESS Today’s financial organizations need open security solutions managed from a single pane of glass to allow security and network operations—

n ALAIN PENEL, REGIONAL VICE PRESIDENT – MIDDLE E A S T, F O R T I N E T

as well as data, including threat intelligence—to be shared across environments, from the IoT to the cloud, to provide better protection. With these types of open and expansive security fabric solutions, financial businesses will be able to evolve and address all the threats that can be faced across today’s landscape.

An open cloud security solution is more than just a suggestion. It should be a requirement for any organization evaluating cloud security vendors, and it should be part of the foundation of any security strategy as well.

CHOOSING WISELY FOR A SECURE FUTURE Financial services organizations are shifting applications to the cloud, seeking the efficiencies and cost reductions this move holds. However, with cybercriminals eager to get their hands on financial data, security is paramount – making it more important than ever to vet cloud security providers. There are many providers available on today’s market, so before investing, it’s important to remember to look for each of these four core elements. Doing so will provide peace of mind that legal requirements are being met while creating a more secure data environment and the possibility for easy scaling. ë

MY OPINION

levels of quality, performance and consistency.

Developers prefer our suite of products as it is easy to integrate and setting up a new portal can be done in a few weeks. We are also leaders when it comes to search, performance, stability and availability. All this together means that we are the first choice for any travel business that wants to go online and in MENA we have 93% of the OTA business.

GRAHAM NICHOLS,

MANAGING DIRECTOR AT AMADEUS GULF

Shaping the Future of Travel AS PER A RECENT STUDY BY PHOCUSWRIGHT, THE MIDDLE EAST’S ONLINE TRAVEL MARKET IS FORECAST TO ALMOST DOUBLE IN VALUE WITHIN THE NEXT TWO YEARS, RISING FROM US$18 BILLION TO US$35 BILLION BY 2018. GRAHAM NICHOLS, MANAGING DIRECTOR AT AMADEUS GULF SHARES WITH US, HOW AMADEUS PLANS TO REDEFINE THE TRAVEL MARKET ‘SMARTLY’.

Tell us about Amadeus solutions and how they are benefitting the modern enterprises Mid-long term the travel industry is growing significantly and rapidly despite a challenging environment just now. In order to be able to keep up with the competition in this industry, it is even more crucial for agents to adopt the latest technologies across their business. Keeping this objective in mind, Amadeus Gulf focuses on educating and providing personalized and innovative solutions to travel agencies which facilitate the

entire travel journey and improve the traveller’s experience. We are at the heart of the global travel industry, working with our customers and partners to shape the future of travel.

What is the edge of Amadeus’ ecommerce Module and how are they helping the modern aviation industry?

Amadeus is the technology behind many of the leading online travel companies in the world. Our robust web services and certification processes mean that applications built using Amadeus web services conform to the highest

Which have been your most prominent partnerships of late?

Amadeus Gulf renewed its partnership agreement with Bin Ham and Al Amaan, part of the Bin Ham Group of companies, late last year.

Apart from that we had signed with Airborne and Universal travel. Also we renewed partnership with International tours and travel in Oman.

These new agreements are very important to us because it shows the confidence that our customers have placed in us. We look forward to further developing these partnerships and helping our customers grow due to the ease of use, effectiveness and breadth of our products and solutions.

Are you able to share any recent success implementation story?

Amadeus Gulf hosted for the first time in this region the #Fly by Digital event, which took place at Jumeirah Beach Hotel on 16th and 17th of November. The event brought together a number of digital and travel experts who shared their insights on how to take the travel business successfully online. It was a great success with lots of positive comments from the audience.

Apart from that, Amadeus Gulf had a list of offerings in 2016 that included the release of Dynamic Travel Documents, Enhanced Business Intelligence reporting and the introduction of Amadeus Voice – a gateway of information to the travel agents/tour operators.

How do you see the year 2017 coming along?

2017 will be another successful year for digital and technology advancement. In UAE, lots of projects are underway such as Driverless cars, Hyperloop and advanced electronic services in the airport not to mention further development of Masdar City on a daring journey to develop the world’s most sustainable eco-city.

The travel market in the Middle East is poised for a resumption of growth. High Internet penetration, improving technology infrastructure and a young population with an appetite for travel make the region very well positioned for expansion. ë

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COVER FEATURE

AMMAR ENAYA, REGIONAL DIRECTOR â&#x20AC;&#x201C; MIDDLE EAST AND TURKEY, ARUBA, A HEWLETT PACKARD ENTERPRISE COMPANY

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COVER FEATURE

ARUBA

MASTERING THE ART OF ‘MOBILITY’

Stable, Secure, Smart and Simple—Aruba, a HPE company has been mastering secure mobility with these 4 pillars. As enterprises move towards optimal digital reality, the vendor is all set to seize a bigger customer base with their modern offerings in #GenMobile. n W O R D S : A N U S H R E E D I X I T < A N U S H R E E @ G E C M E D I A G R O U P. C O M >

“Growth is never by mere chance; it is the result of forces working together.” -James Cash Penney

P

erhaps, this couldn’t be truer when we talk about the journey of Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company. As mobility and BYOD trends emerge as the new realities of modern enterprises across the region, Aruba’s merger with HPE was a beginning of mobile solutions in ‘entirety’ with ‘simplicity’.

Ammar Enaya, Regional Director – Middle East and Turkey, Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company says that the region is poised for tremendous growth in adopting newer technologies in enterprise mobility and Aruba sees it as a golden opportunity to take their unique message across the market. “Coming under the umbrella of HPE has been an excellent thing for us. Aruba was a wirelss company and we have been trying to push our wireless solutions to the market with our wide ecosystem of partners as end-to-end solutions. With the merger, customer now have an option to have these endto-end solutions from a single vendor. The journey has been a dream journey. The people who have tailored this acquisition have did it in the best way and our go to market strategy was

superseded, leading the way for HPE. The major backing HPE has brought to us is their relationships with the CIO. Before, when Aruba was working with large enterprises, dialogues would start with IT officials before moving up the ladder. Aruba representatives would talk with the CIOs only when the deal was almost done. As an HPE company, Aruba now frequently begins talks with the CIO, then works its way down. The wireless network is at the forefront of what HPE is doing, although the wired side continues to play an important role. Together, Aruba and HPE have the mid-market and large enterprise segments well covered. Both companies have strong channel partners, which helps smaller companies that typically do not have large IT staff but have similar needs as larger companies. SMBs offer a $500 million opportunity globally, and we are moving in that direction this year.”

THE 2016 GROWTH CURVE Ammar says that in spite of the political turmoil in Turkey and the local currency fluctuation in Egypt respectively, Aruba has established a firm foothold in both the countries and have some great success stories to tell. “Despite of all the odds. we maintained our position as a unique secure mobility provider along with end to end infrastructure management, security and cloud offering.” Ammar also added that he gauges the market, that he handles, on 3 parameters of IT maturity and IT spending. “The Emirates, Saudi and Turkey are the top 3 countries that have

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COVER FEATURE

“Security is an art and we at Aruba HPE approach it by designing our products and solutions to be secure.”

been booming in terms of maturity and spending.

Egypt and Kuwait have been growing fantastically compared to the other countries who are doing fairly well.”

TRANSFORMING THE WORK AND WORKPLACE According to Ammar, Mobility is the heart of the digital workplace and it will dominate for many years to come. “People are collaborating more and expect to have the same user experience outside and inside the premises. There is a lot of media being transferred between devices and people are spending more time outside the premises. They

even work in weird locations but still expect the same coverage across,” A recent study, sponsored by Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company, showed that companies rated by employees as ‘pioneers’ in how they support mobile technology, saw a rise in productivity (16%), creativity (18%), satisfaction (23%), and loyalty (21%), when compared to organizations that were poorly rated at supporting mobile technology.

Aruba has been approaching their customers in unique ways. “It is not necessary that the CIO is only our prime customer. “What we see is, who the ultimate buyer of the technology is.

IT CHALLENGES IN ME INDUSTRY l How to integrate the wired and wireless infrastructure? l How to maintain performance with the scale of devices, IOT and apps connecting to the network? l how to predict network problems before they occur? l how to secure the network?

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Sometimes it may be the CEO, or the CFO or the marketing heads, depending on the solution that we are selling and the purpose that it will meet.

Today, most of the companies and employees understand that a mobile-first approach can be good for business, but if you can tell a CEO of a Fortune 500 business that their organization can achieve a 16% increase in employee output, or HR directors that they can increase loyalty by over one-in-five, we believe they would make mobility an even greater investment priority.”

“We definitely believe in providing solutions rather than selling solutions, hence we approach the customer with the ‘Pain’ or ‘Gain’ approach.

ARUBA SOLUTIONS l Aruba’s Mobile First Platform adapts and innovates itself in sync with the ecosystem – with software components that are easy to consume and developer-ready l App visibility reporting, predictive monitoring, and Wi-Fi analytics capabilities offers increased flexibility in adopting Aruba Mobile First Networks infrastructure for the distributed enterprise and SMB customers. l Aruba ClearPass supports the IoT influx with multifactor authentication for device and app security, and provide deeper insights into security incidents. l Aruba ClearPass leverages known and trusted contextual information to create policies that secure network access on any multi-vendor wired or wireless network

COVER FEATURE

THE SECURITY APPROACH Educate the customer that security is a layer 1 to layer 7 approach

Encourage them to have a proper authentication and encryption system

Monitor all the traffic

and the partner in different and relevant ways through campaigns, direct advertisements and open forums. The channel system on the other hands works towards empowering each and every SI and value added reseller in the ecosystem through public and online trainings and seminars to educate them.”

We either tell them the pain points that they are experiencing or we explain to them the advantage or the edge that they can enjoy by implementing our solutions. If the message is clear, our work is done. We do not merely go and sell. We study the needs of the customer that we are tapping and then approach them with the solution. This does not mean that the CIO is alienated from the entire process. We would like to act as a consultant to the CIO, because ultimately it is the CIO with who we have to work.

THE 4 PILLARS OF ARUBA’S TECHNOLOGY Ammar says that when the CEO of Aruba laid the foundations of their technology, he laid out the 4 ‘S’ of their vision— Stable, Secure, Smart and Simple.

“When we were building our technology, we had these 4 pillars in our minds and these are documented on our website as well. We have tried to make a technology that is Stable, Secure, Smart and Simple. It is in our DNA. Talking from the solutions point of view, every time a CIO approaches us we try to deliver the simplest solution that can help him get what he wants in the minimum cost.”

DECENTRALIZING KNOWLEDGE ACROSS THE ECOSYSTEM Skill gap was a major issue that stole away the taste of transformation from many organizations in 2016. Talking about integrated approaches for training the customers and channel partners, Ammar says that Aruba adopts a 2 way method— The marketing approach and the channel approach. “The marketing department, headed

by Manish Bharadwaj, approaches the customer

A recent study, sponsored by Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company, showed that companies rated by employees as ‘pioneers’ in how they support mobile technology, saw a

Manage the content going in and out

WEAVING SECURITY IN IOT “Security is an Art” according to Ammar, and HPE masters this art by designing the products and solutions to be secure.

We do this in cooperation with our ecosystem partners, such as Palo Alto for content management and others. We are also lowering the cost of IoT by optimising the lifecycle of IoT devices.

By reducing IoT connectivity, compute and control costs and embracing open interoperability standards to harmonise device communications, we are arming organisations with tools to dramatically change the economics and viability of large-scale IoT deployments. These tools, a combination of infrastructure and software platforms, help us deliver to the vast number of use cases that constitute IoT todayWe try our best to master security.

2017 AND BEYOND The wireless network is at the forefront of what HPE is doing, although the wired side continues to play an important role. Together, Aruba and HPE have the mid-market and large enterprise segments well covered. Both companies have strong channel partners, which helps smaller companies that typically do not have large IT staff but have similar needs as larger companies. SMBs offer a $500 million opportunity globally, and we are moving in that direction this year.

FINALLY

23% satisfaction

21% loyalty

18% creativity

16% rise in productivity

A unique approach to the market and an unconventional mobility solutions have been the ‘Allen key’ that has helped Aruba HPE to strike the right chord with the customers. An intricate marketing campaign and tight-knit solutions that may not match with the likes of other vendors has been the strength of this vendor. As they say, only dead fishes go with the flow; winners swim against the tide. ë

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INTERSEC 2017 ROUND-UP

AGILITYGRID What is your major focus at Intersec 2017?

Our main focus is to demonstrate to our distribution partners and their customers that we offer one of the most comprehensive surveillance solutions that plugs into whatever systems their customers may have and provides measurable performance KPIs to the companies and business deploying the systems.

COSTA BOUKOUVALAS,

CEO, AGILITY GRID

GUNNEBO

JACOB TOUMA,

REGIONAL MANAGER FOR GUNNEBO IN THE MIDDLE EAST

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What kind of demand do you see in the region for security products and how are you catering to the overriding demands of the region?

We are definitely seeing a growing need for security products and services across the region and not just in law enforcement but also around major businesses and large projects like the Doha Festival City, Etihad Towers in Abu Dhabi, Design District, Dubai Opera House and many more.

To ensure that we deliver the right kind of products and services, we ensure that all our (system integrator) partners are up to date and trained on all our solutions to deliver the services we promise to their customers. We have a Centre of Excellence in our offices, where we

Tell us about Gunnebo’s security portfolio in brief.

Gunnebo is a turnkey solutions provider within security, providing a mix of outdoor perimeter protection, entrance security, access control and electronic security solutions as well as safes, ,vault s and vault doors for secure storage of cash and valuables.

Besides, we also profide solutions for efficient and secure management of cash for the retail and entertainment industry.

What is your major focus at the Intersec 2017?

At Intersec 2017, Gunnebo is showcasing its full capabilities as a security turnkey soutions provider. Using an airport as the design of a stand, we showcase how we can protect a high-risk site form the outside and in. Starting with perimeter solutions like boom.barriers, roadblockers and crash-rated gatees on the outside, moving inside to solutions for automatic border control and entrance control at different

conduct regular training and demos for them.

We also make sure that we provide the back up by our team of highly qualified engineers to help them design the right solution for each customer’s business needs.

What have been your recent partnerships?

We like to go out and source best-of-breed technology from around the world and bring this to the Middle East. We have done so with our suite of Video Analytics software which includes Snap suspect tracking software from Australia, Herta facial recognition from Spain (recently used at the Golden Globes), Viakoo Performance monitoring from the US along with homegrown MIMs for mobile incident management and many more. On the hardware front, we have a new partnership that is about to commence with Intransa. We are really excited by this as Intransa are the founders of purpose-built video surveillance and have immense experience and know-how in this area. They have been solely concentrated on the US for the last few years but are now looking to expand into the Middle East with a range of new and upgraded products for our customers’ needs. ë

security levels, blas-. And bulletproof solutions for phasades, solutions for stores in an airport for storing ov valuables overningt as well as solutions for efficient cash management.

How well aligned is Gunnebo with Dubai Smart City initiative?

Gunnebo’s solutions could contribute in several ways to Dubai’s smart city initiatives.

The latest success which we as a group are very proud of is the way our Cash Management solution revolutionized the way Cash being managed in UAE. The Gunnebo Cash Handling solution has been presented in UAE through our partners Transguard.

By implementing Gunnebo technology in handling cash the Dubai retailers and banks slashes cost and time in handling cash and receives a very efficient solution to reconcile sales with deposits as well as reducing shrinkage due to counterfeits or miscounts and the retailers receives real time credit for their deposits. ë

INTERSEC 2017 ROUND-UP

HID GLOBAL

WISAM YAGHMOUR,

REGIONAL SALES DIRECTOR – MEA, HID GLOBAL.

GENETEC

FIRAS JADALLA,

REGIONAL DIRECTOR - MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA, GENETEC.

What was HID Global major focus at the Intersec 2017?

This year we focused on access control and Identity Management innovations in a connected environment which are witnessing a rise in end-user demand in the Middle East.

We held demonstrations on how applications such as office access, time and attendance and secure printing using HID Mobile Access can be connected in a secure and convenient manner in our networked world of today. We also showcased how to establish proof of presence using HID Global’s unique trusted tag services. Our customer-centric mobility solutions at Intersec 2017 were also aimed at showing visitors how their organisations can achieve an enhanced user experience, greater convenience by giving them a wide choice of applications and mobile devices for their employees and visitors. This included a smartphone, tablet, or wearable to enter controlled areas or networks

A

t the Intersec 2017, Genetec showcased the advanced capabilities of its new offering—Genetec Retail Intelligence—that will help retailers gain a deeper understanding of customer behavior, needs and preferences to build a more personal relationship by analyzing and correlating information gathered from multiple sensors such as video surveillance cameras and point-of-sale systems. With powerful analytics such as queue management, heat mapping, directional analysis, people counting and conversion rate analytics, the application can notify staff in real-time to respond to shoppers in the store or in a particular section. It will also inform them about long lines on check-out lanes or changing rooms so that the necessary staff can be reassigned. Marketing and merchandising professionals can use the information provided by the application to design new promotions and optimize inventory strategies

Based on your customer meetings, how have you seen the security market growing from 2016?

Merging security with convenience to provide a better user experience continues to be the top focus in the market.

In 2017, based on HID Global’s broad view of the market in close collaboration with customers and partners who are assessing and deploying innovative solutions, we forecast a shift in the use of identity technology that will lead to increased adoption of mobile devices and the latest smart card technology, a greater emphasis and reliance on the cloud, and a radical new way of thinking of trust in smart environments and Internet of Things (IoT). This will transform the way trusted identities are used with smart cards, mobile devices, wearable’s, embedded chips and other “smart” objects, particularly in industries focused on regulatory compliance, such as government, finance and healthcare markets. ë

from within a single interface.

Genetec also put spotlight on ‘Genetec Security Center 5.5’ and ‘Security Center Federation.’ The latest version of Security Center 5.5 adds disaster recovery features, greater security with enhanced authentication and encryption, new hardware integrations, enhanced scalability and much more. As today’s environment brings new security challenges, Security Center 5.5 adds innovative capabilities to better help organizations monitor their sites, while offering administrators greater control and visibility of their security infrastructure. ‘Security Center Federation facilitates centralized monitoring, reporting, and alarm management across multiple sites or organizations, while streamlining operations during off-peak hours--powered by a highly scalable architecture that synchronizes cameras, doors, automatic license plate recognition (ALPR) units, intrusion panels, and all related events, alarms, and ALPR hits between sites. ë

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GUEST ARTICLE

How IoT and Internet Will Merge The ability to connect machines, devices, sensors, and other everyday things into an intelligent network and make sense out of them, has huge promises to change everyday life. As can be expected by taking in our entire world and attempting to change it one stroke and with one magic wand is unrealistic, challenging and cause for chaos in the short term.

ment as it exists today, which is low cost, low power consuming, low computing capacity, and distributed computing nodes.

n BRUCE ZHOU, CEO, AXILSPOT

For business decision makers and technology providers, some measure of clarity and progress can be made by understanding the challenges of applying IoT to business. We look at two principal challenges in making this happen.

TECHNOLOGY PROTOCOLS The challenges of IoT are resident in the ability to connect sensors and devices directly to the Internet. To connect to the Internet any device and application must use Internet Protocol stacks. It is for this reason that devices called Internet Gateways have been created that connect to non-Internet Protocol devices and networks on one side and the Internet driven applications,

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devices and networks, on the other side.

By doing so, Internet Gateways need to be designed for the type of local networks and local applications that they manage on one side and how they connect to the Internet on the other side.

The basis for the development of Internet Protocol applications till now has been growing availability of large computing power and significant memory capacity to manage complexity of the Internet Protocol based applications.

And all this within localised high cost nodes like desktops, notebooks, smartphones, tablets, amongst others.

This is the exact antithesis of the IoT environ-

NETWORKING ARCHITECTURE When building an IoT network it is essential to plan and look ahead. It is also important to converse with all departments associated with the benefits and operations of the IoT network and applications. When dealing with tens of thousands and hundreds of thousands of sensors and devices in any IoT project, it is important to have a networking strategy to ensure the end result is managed chaos instead of unmanaged chaos.

Industry consultants who have gone through such projects point out, IoT application and network designs need to be built looking at requirements five years from now. When in doubt the rule of thumb is design networks for a requirement that is 10X the number of devices that are connecting in now. Another important consideration is to design the wireless environment thinking about what will happen in that specific industry over next five years.

While the benefits of such best practices are self-evident, industry surveys show that such discussions are not happening as much as they should. If all else fails, the minimum rule of thumb to apply, think big for IoT. As silicon technologies improve the computing capabilities of IoT sensors, devices, machines and appliances, they will increasingly become more and more Internet like. At that stage the two worlds will come together in exponential fashion and the true power of IoT will become a reality. ĂŤ

CASE STUDY

SOPHOS

German International School Abu Dhabi Benefits from Comprehensive Sophos UTM Protection German International School Abu Dhabi is located in the Zaab district of Abu Dhabi City. To make the web more accessible in its campus, the school recently started offering Wi-Fi access to both students and faculty; this is in addition to the school’s existing wired network. This led to the emergence of IT security challenges, primarily the lack of control over keeping inappropriate content out of the classroom and ensuring students don’t waste time on sites they aren’t supposed to be spending time on.

BUSINESS CHALLENGE One of the primary concerns was to ensure the sanctity of the school’s web based education platform used to deliver a highly interactive learning experience to students. Considering the internet is the backbone of the school’s academic endeavour, Karsten and his team wanted to ensure, cyber threats did not interfere with academic output.

The Technical Solution Karsten and the school management decided that protecting and controlling web access and network protection were top priorities. The next step was to select a security solution that satisfied all their needs and requirements while being easy to deploy and manage. They spent countless hours assessing potential solutions and compared security products from various vendors before selecting Sophos UTM. The Sophos deployment was the result of a successful free trial and convincing POC where Sophos UTM demonstrated its ability to address German International School’s core concern controlling student’s internet access with a range

of security features. .

SOPHOS UTM SG 330 WITH NETWORK AND WEB PROTECTION The Sophos SG solution offers robust next-gen firewall protection and the security features make it the right fit for German International School, Abu Dhabi. The Sophos SG appliance offers: l Network Firewall Sophos makes defining and managing firewall rules simple, which makes it easy for IT security administrators to define reusable objects that can be updated across the system and all the rules that use them. Karsten can now shape or manage bandwidth by application, category, user or group or policy rule and even block traffic from unwanted countries or regions. l Advanced Threat Protection Combines multiple technologies like IPS, Web, App control and selective sandbox analysis to provide a layered defense against APTs, command and control traffic and targeted attacks. It’s as simple as flipping a switch and the school’s IT

KARSTEN BORNKESSEL,

HEAD OF IT SERVICES GERMAN INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL, ABU DHABI

“Sophos UTM offers comprehensive protection that is perfectly configured for the needs of educational institutes.”

security team can quickly identify infected hosts on the school’s network before they become a problem. l Self-Service User Portal Our secure self-service user portal helps users help themselves, reducing the workload on the IT security administrator’s desk, making Karsten’s life a whole lot easier. l Layer-7 Application Control This allows Karsten to control application traffic on the school’s network to effectively manage resource utilization and productivity. Our deep layer-7 inspection can identify over 1300 applications like Facebook, YouTube, IM clients, and much more. Karsten’s team can easily block, allow,

BUSINESS BENEFIT After deploying Sophos UTM, the German International School, Abu Dhabi has experienced a vast improvement in web access from the security perspective. Karsten and his team have made excellent use of the several security policies to ensure internet access is strictly regulated.

Detailed logging and reporting gives Karsten and his team clear insights into usage, trends, and web activity. Overall, Sophos has helped the school proactively shape and reshape their policies, ensuring protection never interferes with student productivity. “Thanks to the simplicity, reliability and advanced nature of Sophos UTM, we could usher in a new era of secure digital learning in our classrooms for students and teachers alike” reveals Karsten Bornkessel. ë

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GUEST ARTICLE

The Enterprise Argument for Hybrid Cloud in 2017 Hybrid cloud is set to be one of the biggest, most valuable technology opportunities for enterprises in 2017 and looking ahead over the next few years. To take advantage of this opportunity enterprises must apply the same principles they utilise in maintaining multiple data centres to data storage in the cloud – whereby a single cloud will no longer suffice.

strategy. This will ensure that when applications and workloads are being moved across various infrastructures there’s a backup and disaster recovery plan in place to guarantee that downtime is not an issue.

However, our research finds that the majority off businesses are struggling to achieve this. The Veeam 2016 Availability Report found that, despite investing in their data centres, 82% of businesses admit suffering an availability gap between how fast they can recover applications and how fast they need applications to be recovered. They are therefore unable to meet end-users’ requirements for an always-on business.

n R I C H A R D A G N E W , V P N W E M E A AT V E E A M S O F T W A R E

The hybrid cloud trend has been confirmed by leading analyst firms, with IDC predicting organisations will require a mainly cloud-based IT environment by 2019 and 451 Research claiming that public storage spend will double in the next two years as demand for on-premise storage declines.

WHY HYBRID? Hybrid is gaining in popularity as it offers not only the flexibility and data deployment benefits of public cloud, but also provides the security assurance of on-premises, private cloud – effectively giving businesses the best of both worlds.

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This means organisations can now store their most important or sensitive data on the private cloud, while storing other resources on public networks.

The move towards hybrid cloud makes the integrity of data and services a major priority for enterprises. It will therefore be important to get the right mix of on-premise and various as-aservice offerings, to ensure data is always available and synchronised across multiple platforms.

GUARANTEE DATA AVAILABILITY It is critical that availability is put at the forefront of any digital transformation or hybrid cloud

TIME TO PUT HYBRID INTO ACTION Hybrid cloud needs to be used in a way that benefits the individual organisation, and its workloads. For example, it’s particularly beneficial to a university as it can choose to move some workloads to the public cloud at particularly busy times during the year, such as A-Level results day and clearing when they have to deal with a vast influx of data that its on-premise setup may not be able to handle.

It is no longer acceptable for downtime to affect any service and, while the next few years will bring plenty of uncertainties, it’s guaranteed that the importance of data availability — anywhere, anytime — will only increase. Enterprises must have a clear cloud strategy in place before they fully invest in cloud infrastructure. At the core of this is ensuring data and information is available at all times. ë

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FEATURE STORY

Let There Be No Bondages!

Though the penetration of mobility into different enterprises was spasmodic, the wave has been unstoppable and enterprise mobility has emerged as the most active contributor to the productivity ecosystem. Consumerization of IT, an enhanced telecommunication landscape and a passionate workforce are definitely some of the strong factors for this, but what would be worth waiting for is the clever choices that the enterprises would make in determining the mobility borders!

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FEATURE STORY

n W O R D S : A N U S H R E E D I X I T < A N U S H R E E @ G E C M E D I A G R O U P. C O M >

T

o start with the facts, the adoption of smart devices in the Middle East and Africa is set to grow from 133 million in 2014 to 598 million devices in 2018. As far as the enterprise mobility and bring-your- own-device (BYOD) market is concerned, research firm MarketsandMarkets predicts that it will cross milestones to hit a $284 billion mark by 2019 worldwide.

‘HYPERCONNECTIVELY’ YOURS The age of hyper-connectivity comes with no age bar. Unlike the popular belief that only the new generation of mobile device users can reap the benefits of an ‘Anywhere workplace’ would be something not to believe. A hyper-connected enterprise is not merely a Wi-Fi rich workplace, it integrates many seamless collaboration aspects that enables an employee to securely decentralize his desk into devices.

Cisco has acknowledged the need to address their customers’ array of employee and consumer mobility requirements with a full set of mobility solutions. “These solutions are designed to help IT plan, design, and implement a mobility journey that securely improves productivity, enables new ways of doing business, reduces costs, and mitigates risk,” says Mohannad Abuissa, Head of Sales Engineering - East Region, Cisco Middle East Ahmed Sousa, Regional Manager, Solutions Architect, MEA & Turkey claims that Polycom is committed to helping organisations realize hyper-connectivity by delivering the workplace of the future through solutions that defy distance, eliminate barriers and create collaborative experiences for employees. “This is done through secure video, voice and content management solutions to help businesses’ achieve their corporate objectives by enabling workforce collaboration to improve productivity,” he adds.

RISING THREATS IN APPLICATION SECURITY Mobility and security— a difficult couple to pair.

According to Gemalto’s Authentication and Identity Management Index, 92% of IT professionals in the Middle East are concerned about employees using their personal credentials

for work purposes· Seven in ten enterprises in the Middle East feel increasing pressure to match consumer authentication methods in the workplace· The use of two-factor authentication is on the rise, with almost half (49.62%) of Middle East organisations’ employees currently using it Arthur Dell, Director, Technology and Service, MEA, Citrix says that Skycure for Citrix enforces the appropriate corporate policies, such as restricted access to a corporate network, install or remove configuration profiles, block or remove managed applications, change settings, or wipe a compromised device. “Adding to its effectiveness is the fact that it can all can be authored via a simple central management portal,” he adds.

According to J.S Wong, CEO of Talariax, “There are many areas of security that will be challenged and enterprises need to take active steps to secure as much as information and appliances as they can. Some areas that will require more focus include: secure remote access via 2FA and new generation firewall to reduce threats and move towards zero-time responses.”

Jose Menacherry, Managing Director of Bulwarks Technologies says, “The number of malicious programs launched by hackers to target mobile is rising exponentially, and malware targeting mobile is becoming more sophisticated.

The good news is that it is possible to overcome 90% security concerns in a feasible way by implementing proper auditing, compliance & regulation of industry standards with the help of security solutions such as MDM, PIM, endpoint protection etc.”

To tackle the malicious cyber-attacks, a higher-level anti-attack application and protection system is required. User authentication management is also a basic need. “A fullyfunctioned system management is on demand to handle the threat. The AXILSPOT particular VisualSec provides both WLAN and application security protection where the user can directly track down all attacks in real-time. This visible protection system supports Auto WIPS prevention, anti-ARP attack, DDoS protection, Rogue AP defend and also deep packet inspection.

Moreover, the guest network and intranet can be ensured with attack source location and reverse,” says Bruce Zhou, CEO, AXILSPOT

ARTHUR DELL,

DIRECTOR, TECHNOLOGY AND SERVICE, MEA, CITRIX

“At Citrix, all of our products and solutions are designed with robust security methods in mind that are in keeping with industry best practices.”

SECURITY AND CLOUD MOBILITY According to Cisco Global Cloud Index (20152020) by 2020, 95 percent of all workloads in Middle East and Africa will be processed in the cloud, compared to 78% in 2015. The report further revealed that in MEA, cloud data center traffic will grow 4.4-fold by 2020 to reach 304 Exabytes per year, at a CAGR of 34% from 2015 to 2020. “This rapid growth of cloud traffic is attributed to increased migration to cloud architectures and their ability to scale quickly and efficiently support more workloads than traditional data centers,” says Abuissa.

According to Nader Henein, BlackBerry Security Director BlackBerry’s EMM Solution, BlackBerry Unified Endpoint Management, enables businesses of all sizes secure mobile productivity for their workforce and manage a diverse set of endpoints. “Employees are given their choice of device (as it is compatible with iOS, Android, Windows Phone and BlackBerry

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FEATURE STORY

“The lines between business and leisure devices have become less defined, the current situation has certainly created a climate by which the best of both worlds can come together to form a hybrid model that will work for everyone.”

-JOSE MENACHERRY,

“We have powered the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) movement since its inception and this is evident from our market share.”

-NADER HENEIN,

“Cisco Wireless is the foundational element of our “Fast IT” initiative to help IT “take back time” from daily operations” -MOHANNAD ABUISSA

BLACKBERRY SECURITY DIRECTOR

HEAD OF SALES ENGINEERING - EAST REGION, CISCO MIDDLE EAST

MANAGING DIRECTOR, BULWARKS TECHNOLOGIES

$

140bn

Nasscom estimates the global enterprise mobility market to be worth $140 billion a year, by 2020.

81% According to Forbes, nearly 81% of enterprise CEOs today prefer adopting enterprise mobile apps for customer engagement

10) while enterprises guarantee the security of their business data. Ultimately, employee productivity can increase as users connect to business resources effectively while separating work and personal environments,” he adds.

THE EVOLVING

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50%

95%

Gartner says mobile commerce revenue shall account for 50% of total digital commerce revenue of U.S and 24.4% of overall ecommerce revenues by end of 2017

WORKPLACE “User experience, security and storage choice flexibility were critical requirements for this type of solutions. Enterprises are able to give their employees the EFSS solution they need while at the same time realizing significant cost savings by modernizing the underlying IT infrastructure.

Cisco Global Cloud Index says, by 2020, 95% of all workloads in Middle East and Africa will be processed in the cloud

Solution like Syncplicity is a best example that fulfills these requirements,” opines Jose.

The evolving workplace of today is and should be devoid of any laggards.

On the other hand Cisco firmly claims that Cisco Wireless is the foundational element of “Fast IT” initiative to help IT “take back

FEATURE STORY

“Mobility has won a permanent place in the enterprise competitive arsenal, and is only increasing in importance as a younger demographic enters the workplace.”

-BRUCE ZHOU

“Companies will move towards a unified mobile app for enterprise and easy integration will be the key for this adoption.”

-J.S WONG, CEO, TALARIAX

CEO, AXILSPOT

“Polycom is committed to helping organisations realize hyper-connectivity by delivering the workplace of the future through solutions that defy distance, eliminate barriers and create collaborative experiences for employees.”

-AHMED SOUSA, REGIONAL MANAGER, SOLUTIONS ARCHITECT, MEA & TURKEY

FEATURES OF A MOBILEREADY ENTERPRISE n

Uses technology as a competitive advantage in every element of its

internal and external operations n

Uses pervasive Wi-Fi as their primary connectivity

n

Maintain or increases their level of mobility support even when budgets

are dwindling n

Responds proactively to the increased complexity and power of new

mobile devices n

Requires their employees to comply with IT standards for security,

authentication and access. n

Provides an easy to navigate, seamless integration and open architecture

to all applications and platforms to use the mobile applications

time” from daily operations to focus on more strategic initiatives, such as transforming to a Digital Enterprise. “A Digital Enterprise is an organization or business that uses technology as a competitive advantage in every element of its internal and external operations.

By every conceivable measure a fully Digital Enterprise, whether a profit or non-profit, delivers a more compelling customer experience and operates more efficiently than a non-Digital Enterprise,” adds Abuissa. “The next stage of cloud file sharing will be moving into using AI to process the files and automatic integration to legacy systems for straight-through transaction processing capability. The file sharing needs to move away from simple data storage to optimising functional or transactional benefits for the company,” says Wong.

FINALLY The statistics are a stark image of the prospering mobility landscape in the region. As cloud-based applications and services have started governing all aspects of the way employees work and behave, a big share of the digital transformation success story finds itself entwined in enterprise mobility. ë

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FEATURE

FOCUS SAUDI

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FEATURE

Standing Strong The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was hit by the lethal Shamoon virus for the third time recently that posed a serious question on the security doors of the enterprises’ systems. Despite this severe lockdown, market experts are placing the kingdom as a highgrowth region for investors and IT vendors alike with the country poised for some amazing projects and breakthrough investments in its infrastructure. n B Y: A N U S H R E E D I X I T < A N U S H R E E @ G E C M E D I A G R O U P. C O M > n P H O T O : S H U T T E R S T O C K

T

he year 2016 saw the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia slowdown in various projects and investments. Oil price crunches, rising inflation, low government spending greatly dominated the market and a lot of projects had to be stopped midway.

But a recent IDC report has brought some good news, which states that the Saudi ICT market will rebound in 2017 to reach a value of $33.8 billion for the year.

THE MARKET APPETITE: Grant Taylor, Country Manager, Saudi Arabia at Help AG says, “Customers in Saudi are maturing quickly and are therefore demanding a higher quality of service, and ROI. They are now able to see through the sales patter of companies that lack that technical skills to back their claims. They are instead looking to specialist partners such as Help AG who can actually design, implement, configure and support end-to-end information security solutions as well being capable to perform world class Cyber Security Services too.

This has extended to vendors as well who like the flexibility that an excellent information security specialist can bring to their professional services.”

According to Eljo J P, Director –Global Business Development, “Businesses need analytics and intelligence to get deeper insights into their data to be able to make informed decisions that will help them bounce back into action. Here we are able to bring in our in-depth knowledge and wide experience to help organization with solutions that bring down costs while raising efficiencies and business processes.

Naturally organizations are keen for such solutions and we foresee immense traction and growth in the coming years. “

“Shamoon 2 hit the private sector and various government agencies in the region. As a precaution procedure some organization opted for traditional protection such as preventing internet access across the entire organization till this crisis finishes. Moreover, we have also increased the security level of protection, prepared programs for users awareness to save their information from any potential threats.”

-MOHANNAD AL-JAMMAL, HEAD OF IT OPERATIONS & INFRASTRUCTURE, FROM A LEADING COMPANY IN KSA

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FEATURE

EVOLVING IT LANDSCAPE

“The market for new technology was a little stilted but at Help AG, have seen that if you can prove ROI and demonstrate a real need for a solution, customers are still willing to spend.”

-GRANT TAYLOR,

“Keeping in alignment with the KSA Government’s Diversification plan for 2030, we see huge potential in areas of growth in non Oil and Gas. This has opened up opportunities for investments and the next 5-6 years will see the major changes take place.”

-ELJO J P,

COUNTRY MANAGER, SAUDI ARABIA AT HELP AG

DIRECTOR –GLOBAL BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT

$

7.5bn

$

Saudi Arabia will lead the way in IT spending in 2017, investing an annual budget of $7.5bn in transformative technologies such as cloud, big data, social and mobility.

$

70m

12.4%

According to IDC, Saudi Arabia’s public cloud market will be worth $70m in 2017

48

Saudi healthcare market expected to expand at a CAGR of 12.3 per cent till 2020

10.6bn

SR

Government release of payments totalling US$10.6billion to contractors and the SAR20billion injected into the banking system.

7.7%

Official Saudi estimate has the deficit amounting to 7.7% of GDP in 2017.

$

50bn

$50 billion worth of renewable energy projects.

366bn

The budget deficit declined from a record SR366bn in 2015 to SR297bn last year.

5%

Cabinet approved an IMF-backed value-added tax to be imposed across the Gulf following an oil slump of 5% on certain goods

F E B R U A R Y 2017

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IDC expects spending on software and IT services to see year-on-year growth of 5.5% and 9.9%, respectively, in 2017. This is significantly faster than the anticipated growth across the market’s hardware and communications segments, where IDC forecasts spending to increase at a much more modest 0.6% and 1.7%, respectively.

“We are taking traditional vendors such as F5 Network, Palo Alto Networks and Symantec-Bluecoat to market but with a focused services angle.

This enables us to really deliver solutions to our customers- not just point based implementations,” says Grant. IDC expects the transformational impact of the internet of things (IoT) to become more evident over the next 12 months, with prominent use cases including freight monitoring, smart grid electricity, manufacturing operations, production asset management and remote health monitoring.

Eljo says, “Finesse has matured from being a solution provider to become business partner engaging on an outcome-based engagement model.

Finesse is a one stop option for organizations to get a holistic bouquet of solutions for all their challenges and needs. Our innovative solutions and services provide for Business Intelligence & Analytics, Digital Solutions, Enterprise Performance Management, CRM, Customer Engagement, Infra Solutions and Cloud Enablement amongst other business critical solutions.” ë

10GW

10 GW in power generation capacity from a combination of solar, wind and geothermal projects to be installed in the country by 2023.

3major

3 major transport construction projects in the city of Jeddah on the country’s Red Sea Coast.

$

266mn

Infrastructure development projects worth nearly SR1 billion ($266 million) in Thadiq and Huraymila areas of the kingdom

INNOVATIONS

KEY CAPABILITIES n Unique water-based HP Latex Technology to eliminates exposure to inks with hazard warning labels and high solvent concentrations. n HP Latex Inks enable more differentiation as they are odorless, unlike UV and solvent inks. n Automatically prints double-sided day and night backlit applications for coloraccurate outdoor advertising display. n Accessible print zone that features LED lighting for easy loading, and an internal print server and a status beacon that enables at-a-glance production monitoring.

HP Latex 1500 Printer The 126-inch HP Latex 1500 Printer offers a robust and affordable super-wide printing solution. The new printer provides fast turnarounds on a broad range of indoor and outdoor applications, including PVC banners, self-adhesive vinyl, textiles and double-sided prints at a high quality.

Printing at speeds up to 74 sqm/hour (800 sqft/hr) in outdoor production mode and up to 45 sqm/hour (480 sqft/hour) in indoor mode, the printer maintains

quality print after print with 1200 dpi HP Thermal Inkjet printheads, auto nozzle replacement, an optical media advance sensor (OMAS) as well as an embedded spectrophotometer.

The HP Latex 1500 printer delivers a combination of true application with versatility, high image quality and productivity at a sustainable approach that’s better for operators, business, and the environment.

PLEASE SEND YOUR FEEDBACK AT INFO@ ACCENTINFOMEDIA.COM

I-PRO EXTREME Panasonic Marketing Middle East and Africa (PMMAF) has launched the i-PRO Extreme in response to the fast growing demand for integrated video surveillance in the region, which has seen a tremendous growth for video security equipment in recent years. The i-PRO Extreme platform is available on Panasonic’s new line-up of cameras, recorders and video management software (VMS) —providing a native end-to-end H.265 compression while also delivering demonstrable enhancements in image quality, system reliability, IP security and embedded intelligence.

KEY CAPABILITIES n H.265 Smart Coding (Smart Face Coding, Long GOP, Auto-VIQS,) n Enhanced Super Dynamic 144dB at 30/60 fps (depending on model) n Ultra-high sensitivity from 0.0008 lux to 0.015 in colour mode (depending on model) n Auto Image Stabilization n Max. 4 channel simultaneous H.265 encoding n Touchable Rain Wash Coating (outdoor models only) n Secure Communication with Symantec Certification n Built-in IR LED (up to 100 feet)

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INNOVATIONS

Zebra SmartSense for Retail

Epson EB-1460Ui

Zebra Technologies Corporation introduced the Zebra SmartSense for Retail asset visibility solution, an Enterprise Asset Intelligence (EAI) offering that delivers deeper visibility into retail operations, provides better business insights and enables smarter decisions.

This innovative solution combines UHF RFID, video and a new micro-location capability — to identify and track the journey and location of merchandise, associates and shoppers in a retail store in real-time.

A powerful edge analytics engine analyzes data from these sources to provide intelligent and actionable insights to achieve optimal stocking levels, detect and identify misplaced merchandise or assets, pinpoint theft and enhance store promotions and product placement activities.

Epson’s new and intuitive interactive projector, the EB-1460Ui, encourages collaboration and advanced business integration in meetings rooms to support the way people work. With Wi-Fi, remote working and even Skype meetings on Full HD screens of up to 100 inches, this solution from the market leader makes it easier than ever to collaborate with colleagues, whether they’re in the same room or on the other side of the world.

The EB-1460Ui is an all-in-one solution designed to create collaborative meeting rooms, enabling Skype in business and other video call solutions during meetings, and a host of other easy to use interactive features. Remote access capabilities help reduce travel costs, and the remote desktop feature promotes freedom and flexibility from the desktop – simply leave your PC on your desk and present from anywhere around the office

KEY CAPABILITIES n SmartSense for Retail provides complete visibility of the entire store n An intuitive dashboard and centralized management console provides operational, actionable data to support greater inventory accuracy (near 100 percent) n Successful omnichannel operations and asset protection across the entire enterprise. n With SmartSense for Retail, retailers can also quickly locate lost merchandise, proactively prevent theft and ensure best-selling items are always on display during peak shopping periods n Location intelligence also helps retailers track the journey of a piece of merchandise, including items that are at risk of being stolen. n SmartSense for Retail also helps track critical employee assets like handheld RFID readers and mobile computers, helping retailers quickly find lost merchandise and equipment.

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KEY CAPABILITIES n Dual pen interactivity n Finger touch interactive n Screen mirroring n Wireless connectivity n Enjoy exceptional image quality with Epson’s 3LCD technology n Equally high White and Colour Light Output n Native resolution n Brightness n Screen size of up to 100 inches n Better, clearer detail with a high contrast ratio (16,000:1) n Long lamp life (5,000h normal/10,000h eco mode) and long air filter maintenance cycle (5,000h normal/10,000h eco mode)

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